Sayın THY

Sayın yetkili,

Web sitenize giriyorum,

Neredene  Hamburg yazıyorum

Nereyeye İstanbul 

Ara tuşu tarayıcının altında kalsa da bulup basıyorum.

İstanbul hakkında tanıtım fotoğrafı çıkıyor,  Bir daha basıyorum bir şey olmuyor, bir daha bir daha...

Beşinci turda tanıtım fotoğrafına tıklamayı akıl ettim

Başka bir İstanbul fotoğrafı ile bilet al tuşu çıktı

Ona da bastım ve işte şıpın işi Hamburg İstanbul bilet sorgulamasına ulaştım .

Mobil uygulamadan bakayım diyorum

Dönüş bileti pahalı, bir gün sonrasına bakayım ?

Hayır kusura bakma orasını tam şey yapamadık, en başa dönmelisin.

Peki döneyim, döndüğümde dönüş tarihim higlightlı, sadece dönüş tarihimi değiştirip 'ara'ya basıyorum, hop gidiş dönüş ikisi birden bastığım gün olmuş.  

Bari haftalık görünüme bakayım?

Onu daha koyamadık mobil uygulamaya.

Bu web sitesini ve mobil uygulamayı  bilet satan acenteler mi tasarlattı acaba?

SayınTHY Web sitesi yöneticisi

Eski görünüme dön opsiyonunu neden kaldırdınız.
Bu yeni tasarımda hem tüm promosyonlar gibi bir bakışta görünen bir sayfa yok, hem de çok yavaş çalışıyor.
Ben sık sık promosyonlara bakar ve yılda 3-4 bilet alırdım ama bu şekilde bakmam zor çünkü çok vakit alıyor.
Havalı olmak adına fonksiyonu bozan bir değişiklik.
Kesinlikle müşteri sayınızı azaltacak bir uygulama
Ayrıca sonuçlar matriks görünümünde gelmiyor. Madem gidiş dönüş ayrı fiyatlama seçilecek, KLm gibi en ucuz günleri baştan gösterseniz. Web sitesinin kullanıcı dostu olması bence o siteye uğramamın en önemli sebebi (vice versa)

Sayın Mahatma Gandhi,

Seyahatlerinde bizi tercih eden yolcularımız için vaad edilen  hizmetin  layıkıyla  gerçekleştirilmesi ve kusursuz sergilenmesi  öncelikli  hedeflerimiz arasında olduğundan, geri bildirimlerinizin ne kadar önem taşıdığını tekrar tecrübe etmiş bulunmaktayız.

Değerli geri bildirimlerinizin, iş süreçlerimizi ve hizmet kalitemizi daha da geliştirmek için yol gösterici olduğunu, bu yönde de mesajınızda ifade etmiş olduğunuz konunun ilgili ünite ile paylaşıldığını bilmenizi isteriz.

Detaylı bilgi için; 444 0 THY(849) numaralı telefondan 7 gün 24 saat hizmet veren Çağrı Merkezimizden destek alabilirsiniz. Müşteri temsilcilerimiz size yardımcı olmaktan memnuniyet duyacaktır.

Bundan sonraki seyahatlerinizde size kusursuz hizmet verebilmek umuduyla, saygılar sunarız.

Müşteri Temsilciniz,
Kemal S.

Daha önce yeni web sitenizle ilgili yakınmalarımı yazmış ve yanıt istemiştim..
Yazdığım konuyla hiç ilgisiz, copy paste bir yanıt aldım.
İlanlarınızda Balkanlar 99 dolar yazıyor web sitenizde 15 dakikadır gezinmeme rağmen bu uçuşları bulamıyorum.
Promosyonları sorguluyorum ülke dizini Afganistan ile açılıyopr ordan Türkiye'yi seçeceksin de, ordan Adanayı geçip İstanbulu bulacaksın da...
İstanbul'dan da 3 promosyonlu uçuş görünüyor.
Extrem sporlar gibi bir sürü saçma kategori var ama  şehirler yok!
114dolardan uçuş noktalarımızı keşefedin diye bir ilan var. Ona tıklıyorum, tarihler vs yazıyor hangi şehirlere uçulduğunu görmek imkansız.
Ben aktif ve bilgili bir internet kullanıcısıyım. Ben bulamıyorsam hiç kimse bulamıyordur.
Eskiden tüm promosyonlar sayfasını hafta bir ziyaret ederdim, artık sadece duyuru gelince bakıyorum ama henüz hiç bir sonuç elde edemedim.
Yemin ederim THY den soğudum.
Konuyu paylaştığım bütün arkadaşlarım hislerine tercüman olduğumu söylediler.
Bir şirket parasıyla bu kadar rezil olur mu, kendi ayağına sıkar mı!
Bu mailime Kemal S tarafından copy-paste bir yanıt verilmemesini rica ediyorum
MG
 

Sayın Davranış Bilimleri Enstitüsü

Konuk yazar Lady in Purple:


Bugün özgül fobi tedavisi için en etkili yöntem olduğuna inandığım EMDR terapisi ilk seansım için Istanbul’da Davranış Bilimleri Enstitüsü’ne gittim. Resepsiyonist, bazı formların doldurulması için randevu saatinden 10 dakika orada olmamı istedi, ben de öyle yaptım.

Formların bir kısmı iş adresinden ilişki durumuna kiminle yaşadığına dair detaylar, bir kısmı depresyon ve anksiyete ölçekleri, sonuncusu ve aşağıdaki de Travma Ölçeği. travma ölçeğinde paldır küldür soruyor çocukken dövüldünüz mü tacize uğradınız mı diye, inanamadım!

Resepsiyoniste terapistle tanışmadan bunu doldurmamın saçma olduğunu söyledim, "öyle gerekiyor, terapistler bu ölçekler üzerinden yorumluyorlar" dedi. Tabii resepsiyonistin de bu bilgileri görmesine girmiyorum bile.  Fobi için gitmişken travmalarımı terapist daha kolay yargı oluşturabilsin diye yazıyla anlatmaya zorlayan, travma konusunda kendini bu kadar otorite görüp meslek etiğinden ve gizlilik ilkesiden nasibini almamış DBE’yi kınıyorum.

Gerçekten biz Irak’ta Lübnan’da hiç para almadan, insanları sömürmenin çok daha kolay olduğu yerlerde bile daha çok daha titiz çalışıyor, insana değer veriyoruz. Burda üstüne bir de seans 475 TL aliyorlar.

Formları doldurmadım. Resepsiyonist koşarak terapiste gitti, sonra geldi “olsun sizinle yine de görüşecek” dedi, “Lütfetmiş ama ilgilenmiyorum” deyip çıktım.

Burada problem terapistten degil kurumdan kaynaklaniyor. Terapist zaten o kurumda bu uygulamara destek vererek kendini ayristiramamis, kendi meslek etigi olmayan bir insan bence. Dolayisiyla terapistin ismini paylasmiyorum, kendisiyle tanismadim da zaten, ama DBE bizzat sorumludur ve onlar boylesine ilkesiz davranirken onlari koruma gibi bir ihtiyac duymuyorum.

Bu uygulamanin degismesi, psikologlarin ve Davranış Bilimleri Enstitüsü gibi kurumlarin milletin parasini, duygularini, mahremiyetini somurmekten vazgecmeleri icin bu şekilde ifşa edilmeleri, neyi neden yaptıklarını açıklamaları gerekiyor.

Sayın MAKAN Rest/ Beyrut

Konuk yazar : Lady in Purple

What you will read below is a very ironic example of migrant exploitation.

The restraurant called Makan has been operating in Beirut, Lebanon for a few years now connected to many other companies, businesses like Motto, Plan Bey, Beyt, Zawla and so on. And they are growing more and more. They are in arts, food, hotel, wine, architecture and so on.

Good for them, no issues so far. What is bothersome here is that they portray themselves as a social collective who help people, especially through Makan they claim to reduce discrimination against migrants in Beirut and promote their culture.

The truth is far from this. They have a model of "Pay what you think is far" every day a set menu is served by 2 migrants (who turned out be employed be them illegally) to 50+ people. The ambience is nice the food mostly is good but it is probably wothed max 12 USD as the service is very slow and the food is not customized, it is not a restaurant anyway, it is under guesthouse status as you will see below. " Pay what you think is fair" gives the impression and they imply this deliberately as if the money goes to a cause. And if you pay less than 25$ the manager comes and embrasses you and asks to pay more. So having had this experience personally and through friends many times, i decided to leave a review on their facebook page last week with the criticism above, the "Sopthisticated Exploitation" they practice.

Selma Sevkli reviewed Makan — 1 star

February 20 at 9:21pm · 

"Makan is a "prestigious" restaurant that serves a set menu but expecting people to pay a fine dine price. Actually not only expecting but asking rudely after the check: "Are you sure this is what you want to pay?""Was there something you did not like?" by staring at check And this happened after putting 18.000 per person, and not even once. Or sometimes texting after reservation "please note that today it is 25 $ per person" yet on the check it is clearly stated "pay what you think is fair"

I have eaten at Makan over the course of 16 months about 6 times, and i really enjoyed the food, yet the customer service was always poor and slow as well as this pressure from the owner regarding the check.

Serving more than 100 dishes a day, again which is a set menu, with 2 service staff only who are probably exploited and getting max 700 $ a month Because the food is good, that part of the story is overseen and ignored by most.

No ethics, public embarrassment by owner/manager does not fit in any ethical standards, neither in restaurant business or in any human relations, this is especially a shame in a lovely hospitable culture like Lebanon!

Yet the owner needs to be congratulated for the business idea: He does not need to meet any restaurant standards, employ insufficient number of people, and having a "hip" policy makes the same amount of money or more for those who invest much more in all aspects of restaurant business.

Of course Lebanese "not losing face in public" culture is great to take advantage of, it is known and experienced well that people would pay more especially in this kind of set up, out of pressure.

It is not written anywhere or explained the rationale why sometimes the owner decides to set a price for the day and tells you quitely when you get into the restaurant, and tells some customers but not the others on the same day. Perhaps he judges based on his criterias of suspicion if they would not pay enough. Same case goes when you are with party of 8 or more, needs to be 25$ minimum. Why? Are we dedicated a staff for ourselves? No we still had to wait more than hour for even appetizers to arrive.

What is not calculated in this "Actually pay what the owner think is fair" is that we are not in 90's anymore and locals are not the only customers. People speak, people experience better examples and people are not purely stupid.

My request from the owner is to respond to this message, explain how this policy works and simply change the policy/ set a price. Then it is fair, you advertise yourself at a price and people are free to choose to pay for this service at the pre-agreed price or not.

It is also important to note that i am not first one complaining about this issue. Yet none of them i saw on facebook, zomato and tripadvisor were ever responded. I think it is about time this issue is addressed.

What i am suspecting is Makan does not have legal business or restaurant status, that's why they have this policy and that's why they try to charge at least 25$ when people do not pay that much through different tactics.

An hour after my review, Makan shut down all the reviews and started writing me personally. The manager Karim Ghazzi, who is former bank investor, being politically correct and still trying to fool me and not responding to my accusations, my demands were clear:

1- Set a Price/ leave "Pay what you think is fair" system as you cannot stop intervening of what people pay.

2- Leave this supporting migrants game and stop abusing social justice ideas and portraying yourself like a non profit.

After Karim Ghazzi, Tony Sfeir the founder came into the picture who was relatively reasonable but still very secretive and willing to do anything for me to compromise.

Please see the articles on business they have and how they portray themselves:

http://lebanontraveler.com/en/magazine/Lebanon-Traveler-LT_Profiles_Makan_and_M%C3%B3tto

https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/9agvav/beiruts-first-pay-what-you-want-restaurant-is-bringing-sri-lanka-to-lebanon

Finally it came down to them shutting down entirely that they announced on FB on sunday:

Makan

February 25 at 1:43pm · 

(hello and goodbye)

friends and colleagues,

Makan started as a summer pop-up space, a free tribune for amateur and professional chefs to come offer the best of what they make.

the guests would join, accept the chef's offering, and grade their experience by paying what they thought was fair.

in a country where the possible and impossible are close neighbors and intimate enemies, our food voyage ideas were growing with difficulty on that demarcation line.

the chefs' expectations were met sometimes by their guests' "grading", and on other times it was not.
we were asked to moderate and intervene, and that has tested our motto 'Pay What You Think Is Fair', creating sometimes uncomfortable situations.

today, we have the strong feeling that we drifted away from our original idea.

it is now time to thank you all for a long-lasting "summer", 
we will be saying goodbye by coming spring (end of March).
leaving the way for art and creativity to take place and bloom in our gardens.

farewell
the Makan team

Under this, i posted the following comment:

Selma Sevkli It is unfortunate and quite visible that Makan drifted from the initial idea (not clear what it was)

And unfortunately they cannot set a fix price because they are not legally a restaurant, operating under guesthouse status. 

Therefore the "pay what you think is fair" was a creative concept to get away with tax. 

Since this is abused by manager (in a very diplomatic way, kudos for that) by approaching customers and ask for more money (sometimes via text, sometimes whispering, sometimes if you are 4 or more people, sometimes when he simply does not think it is fair or not enough) and the criticism started growing around this, they needed to intervene. 

Could this intervention have been fixing a set price? Not under this status. 

Could they get restaurant status? Probably costly. 

In addition, there is a more serious issue of employing migrants illegally and exploiting them. They were about to and still may be subjected to get into serious trouble. 

Do you remember the facial expressions of the staff? How depressed and oppressed they looked? Have you ever talked to them about their food? Ethiopian or Sri Lankan? There was no cultural exchange with the people who cooked and served the food, it was a sad exploitation story in a "hip" style that had to come to an end. 

Makan owners are more than free to open a restaurant simply by setting a price and do some fair profit for themselves and for others, if this was their "initial idea" 

No need to be hypocrite on cultural exchange or supporting communities. Sorry for all who were illusioned by this idea, no worries, you want ethnic food? Borj Hammood has many Ethiopian local restaurants. Or you fancy Thai, there are many of that all over as well and you pay much less. 

I still hope Makan one day will get what this criticism meant and do things properly without fooling themselves and others.

8

Manage

Like

 · Reply · 1d · Edited

After this point we stopped emailing each other, they got people's sympathy as if they are pushed to close due to financial difficulties.

I want to report them to Ministry of Labor, but i am not in Lebanon anymore. This issue to me should set a case study example of exploitation could be done in so many different ways and people like Karim and Tony should have a lesson on abusing humanitarian values and migrants which can only be done in my opinion through exposure.

I have been doing my research on how would the migrants work for them get affected (losing job, deportation) and need more information.

So please take some time and read all and your input of any kind would be appreciated.

I am moving to Bangladesh this weekend for another humanitarian mission, specifically with World Health Organization to coordinate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support activities, as i have been doing many years in Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon. See my professional profile on linkedin and google my name for more activism related issues.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/selma-%C5%9Fevkli-84617694/

The best solution would be Lebanese to take the case from me and see what should be done. Time, energy and expertisewise it is beyond me at this point.

Them shutting down Makan for me is just to hide more serious facts. Otherwise why would they shut down based on one person's comments? I heard they are opening another "restaurant" in Hamra, and they need some investigation, specifically on:

1-Running a restaurant without restaurant license

2-Employing migrants illegally and exploiting them.

Your help is truly appreciated, i will try to follow up on the case and be involved as much as possible but as i said at this point, my resources and availability is becoming limited.

Feel free to contact me at any time

Selma

Threads between Makan managers/owners/founders. Sorry for the format, i copy pasted them from facebook.

21 FEB 1.38 am from Karim Ghazzi, Makan's Manager, from facebook:

Dear Selma, good evening.. This is from Makan... We read your review and we thank you for your opinions expressed. We will contact you tomorrow and answer all your questions... and hopefully clear out the confusion.. All the best..

21 Feb 2.46 pm from Selma to Karim

Hello, i guess my expresed opinions are too strong to respond to that not only my review you removed, you closed the whole reviews section, interesting.

Instead of trying to be nice and calling me, i'd rather you provide some response publicly, you can close facebook reviews but not zomato and trip advisor, time to get honest and real

Dear Selma, Well, yes ofcourse, we prefer not have too many messages back and forth on facebook. And prefer to contact you directly and respond to your questions and more. Because I am confident that once you learn about us, our operation, and the philosophy behind our collective, then your opinion will change...

Kindly could you send me your email address and telephone number? I'm hoping to be able to send you the explanations by email, and call you after that

And we will for sure make further explanations publicly on our page to those who don't know about us... In both cases, we have a printed info that is distributed to all our guests when they arrive. We call it our 'manifesto'
It is printed on the menu paper that is placed on each table... Will send you a copy of that by email as well..

thank you and hope to hear from you

Hi Karim, it is not just me who is concerned about your philosophy and meanifesto but many friends i have in Beirut, so i stick to my position, i think you need to explain yourself publicly by explaining:

-Pay what you think fair system can only suggest price if this is related to donations and charity, as we know so far, Makan is not and NGO and and it is not expressed how these profits shared

-number of staff is very limited

to me you are abusing a charity model as business and using "social justice, anti discrimination" mottos yet no migrant in Beirut can afford to eat at Makan

I think it is time for Makan to explain their actual model, why sometimes require 25 $ pay, who gets the share as it sounds like a socially fair system yet as a humanitarian worker i see money greed by a former bank investor abusing the non profit system for his own benefit

I think you can share anything you'd like via facebook, i don't see the need of sharing my email address

Selma

and believe me if i get convinced, i will publicly and personally apologize to you but i strongly suspect this is not the case by your " customer sevice" style on on facebook (closing reviews entirely, trying to convince me personally) and in person (many times you approached people to imply they did not pay enough) and you employ insufficent number of employees.

Selma

if you like to see how actually collectives work in the model you claim to have here are two examples, i visited them many times, you don't even get a check, you put the money in a box and money is shared by migrants, and everybody can come and eat: https://www.facebook.com/komsuKafeCollective/ in Istanbul and http://lentilasanything.com/about/ in Melbourne

Okay Selma, thanks for the info.. I will send you a message when we reply so you can check it.. This will all change im sure once you get to learn about us

WED 9:08PM

Makan is a place that offers a space or a tribute to different cultures and cuisines and promotes cultural exchange through food. When chefs come to cook, they take pride in their home country cuisine and we experience with them a great cutural exchange related to food stories and origins and It is pay what you think is "fair" and not pay what you "want" cooks are invited from different backgrounds and are considered our partners on that evening they cook in when you pay, it is to cook that you pay cooks get above 50% of what you pay we don't serve more than 40 to 50 persons on any day the chef cooks single-handedly the meals and tables are served one at a time and this sadly slows down the service for the food to be good we needed to keep this pace the rest of what we make goes to cover the high charges of such place in Mar Mkhael - Beirut all our staff are treated fairly and paid far above the salaries paid in the country, thus all of the ones who started with us stayed unitl today sometimes the cost is high on some menus and upon the chef's request, we are obligated to monitor the average of what people pay in order to offer you a diversity of meals in a good quality we accept what people pay, but whenever it is far below the average of what the mass of other people paid, we go make sure if there was no problem with your dinner. because that is our feedback loop in which we can change the food offering and make it better sometimes we make sure that there wasn't a currency misunderstanding that is why when feel our guests are newcomers to the country we ask them if they clearly understood what they paid the issue with large groups, we ask large groups to pay the average.. because in the case that a large group pays very little. This would mean that the cook has lost money.

Hi Selma.. just sent you a few points about us.. and how we work.. its different than other collectives I guess with this model..
PLease have a read through and let me know if any unclear.. sorry its not written in the best english for now ... Will also let you know once this clarification is on the public page..

Selma to Karim:

Wow, are you convinced yourself of what you told me? Incredible really, i am impressed, it is about the currency difference and the cook's share. And how about employing very few staff? After all that conversation, asking my contact info, i was expecting something more factual, not justifying the wrong. where is the cooperative idea i don't see, where is the cultural exchange i don't see, there is still "fair price" decided and enforced by the owner. And most importantly you cannot handle negative comments on your facebook page, not deleting my comment only but closing it entirely to comments. So tell me one thing honestly, if i arrange (and believe me i have a major migrant network in Beirut) group of Sri Lankans, Ethiopians, Syrians (and not in big parties, 4-5 people a day) and they pay 5-10 USD, would you agree? I would only believe in your sincerity if you actually get into some real cultural exchanges and hosting people from different communities who cannot afford to pay 25 usd for a dinner. You say you are located in Mar Mikhail, it is expensive, fine, set a price and stop fooling people with social justice, cooperative, cultural justice and fairness ideas. What i wonder really is do you also believe in what you say? did you internalize such a hypocrite business model in yourself with peace? We are not done yet, the more i see hypocracy and political correctness, the more angry i get. You are simply abusing and exploiting cultures and people. We are not done yet.

Selma

Unless you change your policy and out back my comment on the facebook page, i am going to write a full scale article (and i am a writer please google me) and share it all over social media about Makan's hypocracy. Unfortunately you took it to this level by closing the comments section, ignoring me in public and with your nonsense justifications.

Selma

and this will definitely have a major impact on the expat community in Beirut who are already suspicious and perhaps legal issues for you as i still think you have a fishy reason behind for this pay what you think is fair, perhaps you are registered as an NGO or collective which you are not

-------------------------------------------------------------------

And the actual founder takes over the conversation, Tony to Selma:

Hello Selma, it is Tony Sfeir I am the founder of Motto that later on became Makan, I do not have a Facebook account nor a smartphone. and I come late to your conversation. I am sorry to read about all this and I asked Karim to send my words through this channel since as I explained I don't have a Facebook. there is two ways to go about this, either we shut our activity or fix our mistakes for the future and redeem our mistakes in the past. before that let me please clarify few points, we are not at all an NGO we never pretended to be one. (I for myself never mentioned or stated at any time anything related to social justice, cooperative or whatsoever, if there is any mention of this anywhere please point it out for me and we try to correct this info.) when we started it was only for lunches / buffet and people left the money on the tables. we shared whatever people paid with the chef and staff and that was it, this was in smaller place named Motto. we then moved to Makan and sadly economy started dictating another way of doing. I do agree with you that it is confusing, sometimes awkward, sometimes embarrassing and and... I truly think that this no longer can continue and it is either we stick with a price or we leave it as pay what you want with no intervention. something must change I do agree with you or we close since we drew afar from the point where we started. now again one more clarification before we get to the point; Makan is part of the Baffa house facility/building that is officially a guesthouse and where food can be served however we employ 4 Ethiopians, 3 Sri Lankans, 1 Philippine and 3 Syrians, the majority of them have been with us since the beginnings. for this reason only and only really for this reason I asked Karim to shut down momentary the reviews (all the reviews good or bad) for now until this matter is fixed. we do not want to see any of them jailed for months for lack of papers and some of them do not have any since they ran away from former abusif employers. the majority of them have families that count on their monthly income. now Selma, is there a place to fix whatever needs to be fixed? which is; either go one way by setting a suggested price for every series or dinner and we remove anything related to the "pay what you think is fair", or stick to the original old way by letting the people decide whatever they want to pay without any monitoring from our side... and announcing either / or officially everywhere on our pages. and also to redeem our passed confusing mistakes that I personally feel sorry about since economy forced us to drift away from our initial motivation (believe me it is not greed we do not make any money out of it and I for myself have to work in few different projects in order to make a living) I suggest to organize on two Sundays of the month for the whole year budget lunches to different ethnic groups for free... (Ethiopian, Sri Lankan, Philippine, Bangladesh, Indian, Syrian, and so on). there are other ideas that can also be developed around that. of course it goes without a say too that all reviews will be back on our page and public announcement will be made through a post and also in our weekly newsletter. again I am sorry and I am ready to express this personally wherever it is need to be expressed. I have looked at what you do and really appreciate your activism also Vlad's (on twitter). I sincerely and honestly hope that this can serve as a lesson for us, and that we learn, address the situation, and assume one way or another of doing things. all the best

Tony

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Selma to Tony:

Hello Tony, Thank you for your response and recognizing the need for change. I saw the comment back on FB and announcement of public announcement of changing your motto/manifesto promised for today, did not come yet. It is very significant how you convey this message of change as what I see is you as two partners are on different pages: Karim is convinced with the current model and trying to justify it, you on the other get my exact point and ready to fix it. It is important to realize where you actually stand as business, and you definitely are not a collective, that I feel Karim is confused about. My accusations for Karim actually stands (please refer to the screenshots of his statements attached) And as he is the one managing Makan and approaching people for price intervention, it would be vital for him to realize what needs to be changed and why. I am curious to see what this "change" will be, as you said, the model of no intervention by keeping the motto would be tricky, especially with a manager around who would need to practice non intervention after realizing and internalizing why this is wrong and rude in many ways, so better to change the motto as you suggested on FB. Will this mean setting a price and when will this be effective? I think this will be a good solution for a start. The idea of affordable meals for migrants could be interesting if planned well. Yet i don't think this is Makan's priority and it is not the migrant community's priority either: Migrants don't follow restaurant pages on Facebook and this could be out of their interest to come to Mar Mikhail, dine and try world cuisine. There needs to be a communication strategy of what kind of cultural exchange you like to bring in and target the right audience, connecting communities through different mediums. This is whole another level if you want to do it properly. If cultural exchange and connecting communities is really your interest rather than serving variety of international cuisine with a set/profitable price, the changes needed are more major. Considering the financial challenges you go through, i don't see this is a priority now. The bottom line is, if you decide to go only changing business model and do not touch the cultural connection area, the idea and statements of connecting communities through cultural exchange especially by implying in any way that those communities include migrants, should be dropped. The chef nobody meets in the kitchen who gets some share does not mean much in this sense. Still the food is served by actually depressed looking illegally employed migrants. This point that you brought up, about employing them illegally as well as running a restaurant under guesthouse status brought another dimension to the issue. I am doing my research on what would be the implications of these information being revealed to public and authorities, both for you as business owners and for the migrants. There is a much bigger issue here. Of course i would not want them to be deported, but then i have no idea how much they are exploited under your management. You talk about previous abusive employers, how would i know you are not one of them and they are not obliged to stay with you because they have limited choices. Currently you are operating with false status as establishment and running this establishment by illegally employed migrants. And this is an irony and perhaps even a scandal considering Makan's promotion of connecting communities (again attached photos and Karim's public statements on bridging cultural gaps, etc.) I have read articles on Motto's start and your idea on the business model, there was no implication from your side as you said, but Karim's statements are portraying another image. I think some clarifications need to done internally at Makan as it seems to be at crossroads. To me the picture now is there are two different approaches of two partners in the same business with many ethical and legal concerns. You may choose to explain me or not of their working/living/ profit sharing conditions and why you cannot employ them legally. It is your choice, i don't need to list all the actions i may take anymore i guess you realize by now how serious and resourceful i could get in many ways. I may seem like a big trouble to you, yet you may also see me a push for change that was due long time ago. In the mean time, i am checking the specifics myself through different business practices in Beirut, migrant working conditions, legal consequences, how one business can employ legally and others don't, running a restaurant under gureshouse status etc. I prefer to continue this communication directly with you via email, you can write me at selmasevkli@gmail.com all the best Selma

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Tony to Selma:

hello Selma.

thank you for your reply and sharing your email address

we had to postpone our post till this Sunday for further debates and clarifications.

we are leaning towards closure, since as I said earlier we drifted afar from our initial idea.

in our sad country, 

legal is not always ethical and ethical is not always legal.

you might have experienced this while living here.

(I would like to clarify points you are raising but also would suggest if Vlad joins-in in our conversation 

he would help enrich it, and also would serve as a reference for some of the facts I will share with you.

anyways this is up to you.)

I will be also sending you some links and studies on migrant workers conditions in Lebanon (some I helped with), and also other links to guesthouses that operate food venues  in Lebanon. (Dar Alma - Beit El Qamar - and others)

our migrant workers law in Lebanon is a bad copy of the Koweit  that is already very bad. (the Kafala system)

one cannot come freely to the country,

there is a private for profit offices that recruit the migrant workers and then sells their contracts to one unique employer,

this employer would come meet the worker upon airport  and from there on would hold their passport tight, usually stored in a safe at home. 

and then "locks" the new hired "maid" at home.

usually in a very small "maid's" room or even in the kitchen.

they are paid usually between 150$ and 400$ / month (out of which they still need to pay a commission to the private office) they work all the day /  seven days a week.

on a quarter of the employers (there is 250,000 migrant workers allow the workers to go out on Sunday for merely a day or so and the others don't.

the employers get abusive, violant sometimes and others sexually harass the migrant workers. 

there is an average of one suicide per week in only the Ethiopian communities round 50 deaths every year.

a lot of them flee, however never with their passport since it is locked in a safe,

and sadly find themselves in very difficult situations.

the employer reports the fleeing to the police and they open a file case.

jails are full of migrant workers,

they can't leave the prison before serving at least two months,

and sometimes they would be forgotten until someone comes and buys a ticket to deport them back to their country.

we have three of our colleagues that suffer from this described above situations, 

one of them was raped and the other was beaten...

(our other colleagues have all their papers regulated well kept with them with them), 

with us, they never work more than 8 hours a day eat proper meals (same of what we serve) 

they live independently,

get paid three or four times more of they are paid usually,

save money .

we don't see this of course as a longtime situation but rather a harbor.

in order for us to help solving the situation,

we try to get them refugee statues or asylum to other countries through some non governmental channels (the only way without passing through jail)

before the war in Syria they used to flee to Syria 

go to embassy claim a new passport and then leave back to their country.

hope this gave you more insight..

have to run for work now, 

will send more later

are you still in Beirut or back to Istanbul?

all the best

Tony

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Hi Tony,

Looking forward to the announcement tomorrow. 

I could not find my answer in your email why you employ them illegally? There are companies who employ them legally with NSSF registration. The stories you told are for domestic workers that i am well aware of. 

Your story is still an exploitation story being more merciful. What i expect from you is not to explain the system in Lebanon but what you do in this system, i still see bringing Sri Lankans+ others and using "cultural diversity/ non discrimination" ideas without actual input the situation: employing them legally. 

And how much exactly do they get paid? I think your responsibility as employer is not to help them with asylum or resettlement, simply employ them legally. 

I don't know what Vlad thinks or writes, i am in this alone myself, taking him to this conversation will not help to convince two people and get away with the situation, the more you delay your announcement and changes, the more you are risking your reputation, business and safety your employees. 

Have a nice evening

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Hello Selma,

I start by answering your direct questions,

out of the 11 different (some have small part time jobs, like gardening etc), non Lebanese collaborators 8 have their legal papers and work normally (residency , work permit, and all the rest, anyways when you have one paper you have to have all the remaining papers).

3 have fled their previous employers, who kept their passport and papers.

we are regulating the status of one at the general security, the other two will either have to be deported with a jail sentence of two months, or manage to receive asylum statues from the UN.

they all get proper pays that allow them to live in proper housing, travel home every once in a while, cover all their needs and also save money that they send home on monthly basis.

all our salaries are fairly above the minimum wage in the country.

we make no difference between a Lebanese collaborator and non-Lebanese,

a race and another race,

women and men,

between a university graduate and primary school attendant,.

 

what I want to clarify is that the law I have described in my previous mail covers all migrant workers not only the domestic workers, we all need to abide by it. 

we will be sending our weekly newsletter tomorrow it will hold our today post but also some more clarifications that I can also send you. 

best

Tony